our meteorologist in the extreme weather center and steve hariggan is in virginia beach, virginia, where they are awaiting earl's heavy rains and high winds. steve, what's it like so far? >> reporter: none of that rain hitting yet. the winds have gotten slightly stronger with gusts up to 30 or 40 miles per hour. they expect the eye of the storm to pass 100 miles offshore here in virginia beach. so they don't expect too much physical damage. 200 national guard troops have been moved to the coastline in case they are necessary and shelters have been set up for as many as 20,000 people. that doesn't look like it's going to happen so far. throughout the day, we saw people boarding up their houses with plywood or hard plastic. but a lot more cureiosity. even righted now, we have a number of people walking along the boardwalk or the beach. gusts of winds, but not a sense of impending peril here. some real concerns about the economic potential that this storm could bring, some major events scheduled for this weekend, a large concert and a large half marathon. so travelers expected here. they ar